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Lilac Disease?

Seeking knowledge- I have young Lilac shrubs with wilted leaves and yellowveins. The leaves themselves are green. We have had branch dieback. Itstarted in 1 plant and has spread to all 5 plants. Had a soil test done andthe phosphate is off the charts. Everything else is in normal range. Ithought Chlorosis at first but now I'm not so sure. Does anyone have anyinsights? Thanks.

Hi Nicki. It may be totally different, but here's what happened to me. Lastyear two 15 year old lilacs went from healthy to dying in the course of acouple of weeks. I was thinking it was caused by drought plus a sudden periodof excessive rain. Since my yard was part of a garden tour at the time, and Iasked every Master Gardener who was a tree expert to look at them. Theyconcluded that the lilac roots were girdling the shrubs. When I dug aroundthe tree, this did in fact turn out to be the case. Recently the Mpls StarTrib did an article about maple trees, but it can be applied to any tree orshrub:http://www.startribune.com​/sick​-maple​-trees​-becoming​-epidemic​-in​-minnesota​/443743323​/So, if the lilacs were grown in a round container and roots were not spread outat the time they were planted. You might want to consider this. Good luck.

> Hi Nicki. It may be totally different, but here's what happened to me.> Last year two 15 year old lilacs went from healthy to dying in the course> of a couple of weeks. I was thinking it was caused by drought plus a> sudden period of excessive rain. Since my yard was part of a garden tour> at the time, and I asked every Master Gardener who was a tree expert to> look at them. They concluded that the lilac roots were girdling the> shrubs. When I dug around the tree, this did in fact turn out to be the> case. Recently the Mpls Star Trib did an article about maple trees, but it> can be applied to any tree or shrub:> http://www.startribune.com​/sick​-maple​-trees​-becoming​-> epidemic-in-minnesota/443743323/> So, if the lilacs were grown in a round container and roots were not> spread out at the time they were planted. You might want to consider this.> Good luck.>> Julie Dahl> Hennepin County Master Gardener>> > -----Original Message-----> > From: COMGAR - Community Gardeners in Minnesota> > [mailto:comgar@forums.e-democracy.org] On Behalf Of Nicki Oswald> > Sent: Friday, October 06, 2017 8:30 AM> > To: comgar@forums.e-democracy.org> > Subject: [ComGar] Lilac Disease?> >> > Seeking knowledge- I have young Lilac shrubs with wilted leaves and> yellow> > veins. The leaves themselves are green. We have had branch dieback. It> > started in 1 plant and has spread to all 5 plants. Had a soil test done> and the> > phosphate is off the charts. Everything else is in normal range. I> thought> > Chlorosis at first but now I'm not so sure. Does anyone have any> insights?> > Thanks.> >> > Nicki Oswald> >> >> > Nicki Oswald> > New Brighton> > About/contact Nicki Oswald: http://forums.e-democracy.org​/p​/nickioswald> >> >> >> > ------------------------> > Reply: Reply-All or visit http://forums.e-> > democracy.org/r/topic/vtj65gwOA0YFUxVl965fX> > New Topic: comgar@forums.e-democracy.org> > Digest: Subject: digest on> > Leave: Subject: unsubscribe> > Forum Home: http://forums.e-democracy.org​/groups​/comgar> >> >> >> >> > *** - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *** Work or live in> Downtown Saint Paul,> > MN? Take our survey:> > https://www.surveymonkey.com​/r​/downtownstpaulsurveyft> >> > Help? http://e-democracy.org/support Hosting: http://OnlineGroups.Net> >>>>

I think that you should take a look at the pH level in your soil test tosee if it is at or above 7.0 and if it is your original suspicion that thelilacs are suffering from chlorosis might be true. I see yellowing on mylilacs which just started showing up in the fall this year and I've seen itin other years at various times. I haven't tested the soil right under mylilacs, but I have a soil test which indicates that the soil around myhouse has a high pH which might be high enough to cause chlorosis onlilacs. Yellowing of leaves with the veins staying green is a symptom ofiron chlorosis on lilacs and many leaves on my lilacs are showing this.Wet weather, such as we have had recently, can bring on iron chlorosis inlilacs. Application of iron sulfate can be used to relieve iron chlorosisin lilacs. I might try using that on my lilacs.